Serpent's Breath
by katepotter7
Summary: 3rd Genre: mystery-harry, hermione, and ron have their own problems which include solving a mystery involving snape. snape also has his own little problems as the story goes on and in the end they all come together for a shocking ending. please review!
1. Serpent's Breath Ch 1

Dear Mom and Dad,

I don't know if you heard, but Voldemort, the wizard that failed to kill Harry as a baby, is now at large. I am writing this to you so you don't hear it from another source, and to tell you that I am fine and perfectly safe at Hogwarts. As long as Dumbledore is here, nothing can harm us. Please don't worry too much about me. Can't wait to see you for the holidays!

Lots of Love,

Hermione

"How's that?" Hermione shoved the parchment under Ron's nose, he read it quickly and said bluntly, "It's brilliant." and returned to his homework. He and Hermione were sitting in the common room side by side on the couch by the fire.

They were waiting for Harry to get back from Occlumency lessons. Because of the incidents of just the previous year, when Voldemort had succeeded in tricking Harry into coming to the Department of Mysteries by putting images in his head, Harry had to reluctantly return to Occlumency lessons. And, much to his dislike, with Snape again, because Dumbledore did not have the time.

Hermione had already finished her homework, and was writing a letter to her parents while Ron did his punishment homework for Snape. Ron had called him a dirty ex-deatheater after he had taken off fifteen points for the expression on Ron's face. In consequence, he was forced to write a five foot essay on Erklings. "You know, that's just not fair! He's being so immature. He's acting like…like Malfoy! When he was a member of the "Inquisitorial Squad" he took points off for the stupidest things. Now Snape is just being an overgrown teenage git." Ron complained for the hundredth time.

Hermione said, annoyed, "OK Ron, I get it. You've been complaining for an hour, and look, you've only got a foot of your essay done." Ron turned to his work disgustedly. "Yeah, yeah I know. But I just can't help it. He's such a -" but at that moment Harry burst through the portrait hole, looking pleased, but slightly pale and sweaty.

Ron was still blabbing as if nothing had happened. "--fart head!" he ended. Harry plopped down on the couch between Ron and Hermione. "Harry could I use Hedwig?" "Sure," Harry replied distractedly. "Wouldn't be talking about Snape would you?" he then asked Ron with a smirk. Ron looked up at him and stopped insulting his essay. "Oh hey mate. How was your lesson?" Harry readily answered, apparently waiting for one of them to ask.

"Actually it's better than I thought." Hermione was now by the window, sending Hedwig off with her parent's letter. She congratulated him, "That's wonderful Harry, I knew you could do it!" Harry shook his head. "No, no not that. I mean I've found out some more stuff about Snape." Hermione frowned. "Harry that's not the point of the lesson--" Harry seemed not to have heard, and Ron suddenly became interested. "Although I'm not quite sure I understand it…"

Hermione became frustrated. "It doesn't matter whether you understand it or not, it's not your business!" She continued, "Besides I thought he told you not to use the shielding charm any more?"

Harry looked at her accusingly, "No, _you_ told me not to use it anymore. But I bet he wishes he could tell me that." They both looked at him quizzically. "You see, Dumbledore made some rules for our lessons. And he told Snape that I was to use any means necessary to try and fight him off. So Snape can't do anything about it. He was so furious that I'd gotten into his thoughts again, you should've seen the color of his face." Harry laughed.

Ron smiled. "What'd you see?" he asked eagerly. Harry faked a serious face. "Well I probably shouldn't tell you since Hermione thinks it's so bad." Harry turned to look at Hermione's don't-bring-me-into-this look. Ron turned to her too and leaned a little further out to look past Harry. "Ooohh, come on Hermione! Please!? We're just having a little fun! What will it hurt?" She gave in, "Oh alright. Have it you're way then." And although she tried to hide it, she looked slightly amused at having that kind of power over them.

Ron cheered and urged Harry on. "Well I can't make much sense out of it, but it's like, there's this woman, a very beautiful woman at that. She had long flowing black hair, a slender face and body. Her fingers were long and thin. She kind of looked like Sleeping Beauty or something. And Snape looked about 15 years old. He's in the room with her, slowly walking towards the sleeping woman. It's so weird, I mean, it looks like he's trying to stop himself, but he can't. And he's looking at her with this weird look on his face, it's hard to explain….sort of like…._hunger_."

Ron looked amazed, with his mouth slightly open, that Snape would actually be in the same room as a beautiful woman. But Hermione seemed to have lost all anger and was looking very interested. She started slowly, "So, then what happened?" Harry was thankful for her change of attitude, so he didn't ask questions. "Dunno. Snape stopped me before anything else happened." "That's interesting…" and she stared into the fire, deep in thought.

Ron finally spoke. "Wow Harry. I wonder what it means…" Harry agreed, "Yeah, I really wanna find out who that woman was." then he added humorously, "We should go ask Trelawny. She'll probably say I'm gonna drown in a cauldron of pickle juice or something." Ron laughed. But Hermione seemed not to have heard, for she was still staring deeply into the flames, as though she found them very interesting.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Harry offered. Ron looked at him, baffled. "Just a muggle expression, don't worry about it." Harry explained. Ron nodded and turned his attention to his homework. "Harry, why wouldn't Snape put those memories in the Pensieve if he didn't want you to see them?" Harry thought for a bit, then came up with an answer. "I guess I must have resurfaced some memories maybe, I dunno." She nodded. "Yeah…I guess that makes sense." And returned to gazing at the fire.

Harry thought for a bit, but decided he wouldn't be able to figure it out without more information. Which he planned on getting next time. He changed the subject. "Hey Hermione." She looked at him. "Hmm?" "What did you need Hedwig for?" "Oh I was just sending a letter to my parents." "Can I ask what you wrote?"

"No problem. I was just telling them about Voldemort-" Ron shuddered. "Get over it Ron! For Pete's sake--anyways, I was just telling them that _Voldemort_-" she looked pointedly at Ron who glared at her. "-is now at large. But that they shouldn't worry about us because, you know, we've got Dumbledore."

Harry replied, "Gotcha. I was just wondering that's all." He then let out a big sigh, closed his eyes, and leaned back into the couch. "Now what's on _your_ mind?" Hermione insisted that he tell her everything these days when he seems to be even a slight bit worried, or exhausted about something. Sometimes, Harry was grateful, but at other times, he wished she would leave him alone. At the moment though, he could care less, he was just so tired.

"Many many things Hermione." Harry half-heartedly smiled and turned to face her, still leaning into the couch. "Well speak up, I've got plenty of time. Let's start with one thing and go from there." She looked at him kindly. He gave in. "Alright. It's just I've been so worried about what Voldemort's up to. I mean, I never realized how important it was that he…well… killed me. And now that I do it's just…." he trailed off.

Hermione finished for him. "Overwhelming?" He sighed again. "Yeah." Harry told them all about the prophecy and everything Dumbledore told him in the beginning of the year. They took it better than he thought. He figured they might have been expecting he had something to tell them, but they were waiting till he was ready; which Harry greatly appreciated. "Go on." Hermione urged him on softly.

"And I've been having these weird dreams…." he saw the look of worry on Hermione's face and said quickly, "No, don't worry. It's nothing like the one's I was having with Voldemort. They're just regular dreams. But it's the same one almost every night…." he trailed off. Then they both realized Ron was listening when he said, "Well come then Harry. You can tell us, right Hermione?" he looked at her and she said quickly, "Oh-yes-of course."

"Ok, but it's so confusing, I mean, it's hard to understand…." he paused, looked at their eager faces, and saw that they weren't going to give up. "Alright. There's this room full of coffins. The room never ends it just goes on and on. And I'm just there, I didn't walk in or anything, I'm just there. So I don't know where it is, but anyways, the coffins have people inside them. But they're not dead. They're trapped inside and they're screaming my name to let them out. And I'm all confused, it's all mixed up and I don't know who to help first. But then I hear one voice, and all the others are faded out. It's Sirius. He's yelling, _screaming_ for me to get him out." his voice sounded choked.

"So I start running to every coffin listening to check if it's Sirius. I can still hear him pleading with me. I'm his only hope and I can't find him. He starts to scream louder, and at that moment there is nothing, I mean _nothing_ more important than anything else in the world, than it was for me to save Sirius." Harry gulped hard. He was _not_ going to cry in front of his friends. Hermione said timidly, "It's ok Harry. You don't have to finish if you…I mean if you don't want to." Harry didn't want them to think him a coward.

"No." he said firmly. "I'll finish it." he took a deep breath. "So I'm trying to find him….right. And his voice is getting closer. I finally found the coffin that he's trapped in. I started talking to him. I said I'd get him out and he stopped screaming. Instead he was talking to me. He said to get him out and he was mad at me. He was saying it was all my fault that he was dead; that I lured him to the Department of Mysteries on purpose. I'm trying not to listen to him as I pry at the crease in the coffin. But it won't budge. I…I told him it was stuck and he said that the only way it'll open is if I avenge his and my parents death. I asked him how and he said I knew. Then…I wake up."

Hermione had a look of pity, and sadness on her face. Then, she leaned across the space between them, and hugged him. Harry was shocked at first, but put his arms around her too and realized this was just what he needed as he felt his worries leak out of him just from a simple, but meaningful hug. She squeezed him tight. "Oh Harry I'm so sorry." and she meant it. She sounded as if she was about to cry herself. "It's not your fault Harry and you know it. It was only a dream." She whispered.

Ron looked as if he should be doing something too, so he awkwardly patted Harry on the back. "Er-yeah Harry, Sirius wouldn't really say those things, I mean- he knows you didn't do it on purpose." Hermione pulled away and Ron stopped patting his back immediately. Harry smiled thankfully at them. "Thanks," he whispered. He was debating on whether he should tell Hermione a hug was just what he needed. Would it sound awkward? He decided to tell her after Ron left; he figured it would sound kinda corny in front of him.

He smiled warmly at them and they returned it. He forced a yawn and watched satisfactorily as Ron instinctively mimicked him shortly after. "I'm off to bed." Ron said. "Coming Harry?" "Yeah I'll be right up." Ron disappeared up the stairs leaving him and Hermione alone. "Thanks a lot Hermione. That hug was something I really needed right now. You don't know how much it meant to me." She smiled again. "Your welcome Harry." She glanced around the room franticly, trying to find something o talk about.

"So uh--" she started. Harry yawned for real and said, "I'm going to bed Herm. Occlumency sure wears you out." Hermione seemed keen to find something to talk to Harry about and keep him down here. But Harry didn't notice and scooped his bag off the table, turning towards the boy's staircase. "Harry?" Hermione grabbed his arm and looked anxious. "Umm-…" she suddenly became disappointed. "Well, good night." and she let go of his arm. He looked at her with a questionable look, but shrugged it off. "Night," and he too disappeared up the staircase. Hermione gathered her things and retired to her dormitory as well.

As soon as Harry entered the room he knew that Ron had already fallen asleep due to the soft snore coming from his four-poster. Harry so longingly wished he wasn't tired as he dressed into his night clothes. He didn't want to dream that horrible dream again. Fighting sleep became useless as he unwantingly drifted into it; wishing he could sleep as peacefully as Ron and Hermione.

But to neither Harry's nor Ron's knowledge, Hermione was not sleeping as peacefully as Harry thought. In fact she wanted to sleep, but could not. For Hermione had something on her mind. A certain someone has come to her attention lately that she can not get out of her mind. In fact, this was bothering her so much that she was falling slightly behind in her school work. And, however frustrating it got, she couldn't stop thinking about it. When enough time had passed to make her drowsy, she forced her mind blank, and fell uneasily into sleep.

A/N: I'm pretty sure unwantingly isn't a word….all well, it is now! Please review, it will make me so happy!


	2. Serpent's Breath Ch 2

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own HP. J.K. Rowling does. Duh.

Sunlight leaked into the battered, wooden blinds of Snape's office as the sun rose to greet him. An unfriendly greeting to Snape anyway. A single ray fell across his face and he groaned and cursed under his breath. Snape, unlike all the other teachers, slept in his office on a cot. But this office was also the living quarters for Severus Snape. He raised his hand to his face to block the sunlight and slowly got up to re-adjust the blinds and block it. But then a thought occurred to him. There are no windows in the Dungeons!

He went to examine this elusion that looked just like a battered window in the middle of his door. He reached out to touch it, and the light immediately went out, and the window vanished. This was followed by a high-pitched cackle that sounded just like…"PEEVES!!!!" Snape bellowed his name figuring out the problem. Peeves had bewitched an illusion on Snape's door, and was shining light from someone's wand through it. Peeve's zoomed away guffawing madly.

A seething Snape slumped back to his bed and collapsed onto it. He tried going back to sleep, but he couldn't cool his boiling anger. He checked his pocket watch laying out on his dresser (looking familiar to Dumbledore's), and saw that it was 5:00 in the morning. He laid his head back down again, and tried to remember the dream he was having. No luck. Not that he cared. He got dressed and headed up for breakfast.

He ran into Dumbledore who was also on his way to breakfast, and replied to Dumbledore's hearty, "hello", with a quick, cut "How do you do?" Snape had not been very fond of Dumbledore ever since he allowed Harry to use any means possible to block his spells in Occlumency. Every time Harry entered Snape's memories, he brought back another one of them that he tried so hard for years to forget. In fact, a "dear friend" willingly obliged to Snape's pleas for a memory charm years ago. And although it did have an effect, the horrible truth behind it could not be wiped away.

Dumbledore and Snape arrived in the Great Hall and joined the few early birds at a table. Snape was especially grumpy and did not want to be disturbed, so he sat at the far end, away from everyone else. He grabbed plain grits, plain oatmeal, pancakes with nothing on them, and an assortment of other dull foods, not really intending to eat them anyway, but not wanting to look out of place.

The faint sound of small footsteps could be heard coming into the Great Hall, but Snape did not look up to see who it was until that person sat down in the seat right next to him. Snape was wearing a look of why-are-bothering-me? when he raised his head. But it quickly changed to an expression no one has ever seen on this Professor's face: shock. Snape was completely stunned. His lips parted ever so slightly, and he just stared.

Maybe he was staring because she was beautiful. Maybe he was staring because she was beautiful, and she was sitting next to him. Maybe he was staring because he had never seen this woman before. Or maybe he was staring because of the fact that this woman looked so familiar, yet he had never met her before in his life. She looked a few years younger than Snape. She smiled kindly at him and said in a soft, soothing voice, "Wouldn't you like some syrup on those pancakes?"

Snape closed his mouth and didn't speak. He was not the kind of man that could talk to a woman and make any sense. So the lady just smiled again and gently poured some syrup on his pancakes. Not only that, but she put sugar in his grits, and brown sugar in his oatmeal. During all this, Snape said not a word. He did not know what to think of this woman. Surely she didn't know how bitter he was? She wouldn't dare come over here and spice his breakfast if she knew who he was! Snape's pride came flooding back, and he opened his mouth to speak. But all that came out was a quiet, "What are you doing?"

She looked up from her breakfast which she had started on and replied, "Just putting a little spice into life!" She spotted a strawberry on a dish nearby and snatched it up. "Oh! Here you go!" And she placed it on his pancakes. Snape just stared at his plate. It looked like it belonged to someone else. Throughout the whole meal, he just stared. When the woman got up and left after waving goodbye, Snape did a peculiar thing. He looked around, saw that no one was watching, and slipped the strawberry into his pocket.

At that moment, Dumbledore was having a conversation with Professor McGonagall who had just arrived. Snape pushed his full plate away, and approached Dumbledore. He cleared his throat. Dumbledore looked up and Snape asked him, "Who was that woman?"

"Pardon?" Snape answered impatiently, "The woman! The woman who was sitting next to me just a few minutes ago!" Dumbledore smiled. "Ah. I see you have met Abigail." Snape pondered. "Abigail what?"

"Abigail Makayla. She's the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." And he left it at that. Snape turned away and headed towards his office. _Abigail._ The words kept running through his head. _Abigail Makayla._ It was like a virus. He couldn't stop saying the name in his head. Before he knew it, he was in his office sitting at his desk.

He sat there, waiting for his first class, and contemplated. Then he remembered the strawberry he put in his pocket. He took it out, placed a freezing charm on it, and kept it in his bedroom for safekeeping. As he stepped out of his office, he saw Hermione Granger standing in the doorway. "Er-hello Professor Snape."

Snape was too worried if she saw his strawberry to remember to be mean. He quickly responded, "Oh. Hello Miss Granger." She then gave him the weirdest look and Snape switched into mean-mode. "Er- um- well why are you standing there? Get to your seat!" Hermione snapped to attention and scurried to her seat.

Snape was used to Hermione getting to class early. Hermione got out her potions book, quill and all her supplies and set them up on her desk all neat and orderly. Snape sat at his desk, watching. She went to the cupboard and got out a collapsible cauldron to set up next to her desk. She sat down, rearranged a couple things, made sure it was all straight, then picked up her book and began to read ahead for the next day. Snape shook his head and smirked. "It's the same thing everyday isn't it Miss Granger?" She looked over the top of her book and said as politely as she could, "Pardon?" "You heard me." he sneered.

He paused, took a breath through his nostrils, got up and glided over to Hermione, leaning down so that he was right in her face. "You _fear_ change." His smirk came again and he stood up straight, towering over her. Hermione had a confused, sort of hurt look on her face. "I thought so." and he strode away back to his desk. Hermione sat, confused and discontented. She shook it off and continued to read, but with more difficulty. Snape took interest in other things, and finally the class started to arrive one by one.

Potions came and went with the usual problems. Neville screwed up his potion, which splashed on his robes and turned them pink. Not even Snape knew how that happened. Harry got a minimum of 20 points taken from Gryffindor altogether, for whatever reason you could think of: sneezing, breathing too loud, writing sloppy, answering a question correctly….who knows. But the madness did end believe it or not, and they all proceeded to their next class. All through the day Snape had to put up with all sorts of snotty kids.

As his last class for the day was arriving a Ravenclaw had started it off by spilling an ingredient all over the floor, causing it to bubble and emit a purple smoke which when inhaled, caused one to act like a monkey. Then the bubbles from the floor floated into the air, and spread throughout the classroom. Whomever they landed on burped endlessly.

Snape, who right as the incident happened ran into his office to get some extra supplies of the spilled ingredient, just came out to find his classroom full of burping monkeys jumping all over the desks and picking at each other's hair. He was bewildered for only a split second once he realized what had caused it. He ran about putting people right, and finally fixed up the bubbling, smoking spot on the floor. His nostrils flared and he was fuming as he walked about looking at all the students

Bravely, the Ravenclaw that spilled it stood up and admitted to the accident. Snape rounded on her. "Stupid Girl! Stupid, stupid girl! What am I going to do with you?!" She stuttered, "S-sorry. I--I didn't know what to d-do sir." Snape glared at her. "What would be the most obvious thing to do when cleaning up something you spilled? Haven't I taught you anything?!" He broke off and started mumbling frantically to himself. "Why do I still have this job? I hate kids, I hate teaching. What's the matter with me? Why am I still here? I could be enjoying a brat free life but noooo, Dumbledore says---…" he got quieter so that no one could understand what he was saying.

The students all looked around at each other, not sure of what to do. Snape had never done anything like this before. He abruptly stopped and turned his attention to the entire class. "Scourgify you dimwits! Scourgify!!" And he frantically waved his wand around addressing the whole class. He stamped into his office and slammed the door.

The class all sat where they were, once again unsure of whether to go or stay. Then, in answer to their question, Snape poked his head through his office door and shouted, "Class dismissed!" then slammed it shut again. They all quickly left, glad of the short lesson and no homework. Snape sat on his cot, his hands in his greasy hair, his elbows resting on his knees. He stared at the floor, ashamed of himself. He hadn't had a mumbling fit since…forever. He thought he was over that. He straightened himself up and was just about to take his daily potion when: _knock-knock_. Snape approached his "bedroom" door just as there was another knock. "Who is it?" he called, sounding irritated.

A soothing, familiar voice answered. "Severus Snape? This is Abigail Makayla. I wanted to talk to you for a minute." Oh yeah. That was the girl who messed up his breakfast this morning. Not that it mattered but…she was also the new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher. Snape replied, "Alright, hang on a minute." trying to sound agitated again. He definitely did not want her to see his office as a….well, a bedroom. It was slightly embarrassing. He opened the door a crack and slipped out.

Abigail was already making herself at home. In fact, she was sitting in his chair. At his desk. Snape stood there, and uncomfortably sat in a student's desk across from his desk. Which she was sitting at. In his chair. She spoke first. "I believe we've met before. This morning? I don't think we had a proper introduction. I'm Abigail Makayla, the new DADA teacher." She was obviously waiting for him to say something so he introduced himself as well. "Severus Snape. Potions." Like it was said. Not much of a ladies' man.

She noticed this and cut right to the chase. "Listen. A student complained to me that you lost your temper today. Is this true?" What was he supposed to say? No? "Yes." he said quietly. The little brat. What a tattle-tale. "Well, I for one don't approve of that. So I'm here to tell you that you if you need help managing the students, I'll be more than happy to. One can't handle so many kids at once you know?" Snape said nothing.

She turned a kind serious. "Now don't forget to work on that little temper of yours." She smiled kindly and let her self out. Snape sat there in a student's desk. He couldn't believe a teacher had just sat at his desk, in his chair, and told him to work on his temper. He made a mental note to do so.

A/N: please review. I thought I'd play out a typical Snape's day for you. It'll get more interesting just hang on for me!


	3. Serpent's Breath Ch 3

Serpent's Breath Ch. 3

Disclaimer: JK owns all HP related things. I own the plot, I'm proud to say.

That night- 1:02 am

Snape awoke in the middle of the night with an extremely dry throat and a pounding, light sensitive headache. But when he opened his eyes, he found himself on the 7th floor landing. He rubbed his greasy temples with his fingertips; thoroughly confused. He wondered what had awoken him but he couldn't remember anything. He quickly scanned his surroundings; there was no one in sight. Not knowing what else to do, he got up and slowly made his way back to the dungeons.

He made careful not to run into Mrs. Norris; but luckily she was no where in sight and he made it back safe and sound. His throat was still dry so he got a drink of water. When the water touched his dry lips and moistened them, it made the water taste kind of salty. He made a face and set the water down without finishing it. He got into bed and went back to sleep, deciding to ponder about his sleep walking adventure tomorrow.

That night- 11:56 pm

Hermione was having trouble sleeping again; just as she was the previous night after Harry came back from Occlumency lessons. She was in the kitchens chatting with the house-elves (mainly Dobby) drinking tea, eating crumpets and whatever else they brought her. Lately she found she could come and talk to Dobby when she couldn't sleep.

He could kind of relate to her crush on Harry - in a different, weird kind of way….. Tonight she was having several mixed feelings towards Harry. She felt overwhelmed and when she started talking it all came out. Dobby listened intently while she poured her heart out to him. It was 12:45 am when she decided it was time to go back to bed. She thanked Dobby and all the house-elves, and headed back to Gryffindor Tower.

She was on the landing of the third floor when she heard the sound no student wants to hear when sneaking around the Hogwarts castle in the middle of the night: the meow of Mrs. Norris. Her eyes widened, she stopped, stood stock still, held her breath, and suddenly thought, horrified, that her obnoxiously loud heart beat would surely give her away. (Later she realized how absurd this thought truly was).

Then, slowly, she backed against the wall and flattened herself against it, wishing and hoping against hope that she could be like a chameleon and simply turn the colors of the wall. Mrs. Norris' meows turned into hisses. Hermione could see barely two feet ahead of her in this pressing darkness. She could judge that the sound was coming from her right, but she could see nothing, no movement. Then, an even worse sound came to her ears; the ever so light tap of shoes on the floor.

Filch.

The footsteps stopped where she supposed the cat was located, but they did not come any further. In fact they were quiet for quite some time (It was really only about 2 minutes, but to Hermione it seemed an eternity). She heard very strange noises that she couldn't exactly describe. Maybe Mrs. Norris was sniffing her out for Filch. Then the footsteps continued in the exact direction to where Hermione was trying as hard as she could to fall right through the wall to the other side.

She stared with her eyes as wide as she could make them in order to see when and if she needed to start running. She could make out the shape of a man with shoulder length hair. When he was about ten feet away, she saw very clearly, the glowing, red eyes of a man.

It wasn't Filch.

When he was obviously heading straight towards her, Hermione saw who it was and what he was. Severus Snape was striding towards her, with red eyes glowing, and fangs dripping with blood. Hermione opened her mouth to scream, but absolutely nothing came out. She finally realized that she had legs, she wasn't part of the wall after all, and that she should've started running ten minutes ago.

Looking back, Hermione didn't know why she ran that way. The only conclusion she came up with is that she wasn't thinking rationally and her mind knew that Gryffindor Tower was in that direction.

She ran right at Snape. The reason why Snape didn't catch her then was probably because of two reasons: One – It took him totally by surprise when she ran straight at him because he expected her to run the other way. Two – She was running so bloody fast, all he saw was a blur with bushy, brown hair.

As she ran past him, in one split second she saw an object on the floor from the corner of her eye. Looking back, Mrs. Norris was lying on her side on the floor, horribly, undoubtedly dead. That image never left Hermione's mind.

In looking back she also saw that Snape was chasing her. A terror like she had never felt before rose up inside her. Something happened in her body and she suddenly felt like Superman. She ran faster than she thought possible. Later she realized that it was obviously an adrenaline rush that enabled her to run so fast. Her heart was pumping loudly in her ears and tears began to stream from her eyes.

As she ran up the stairs to the seventh floor, she came up with a plan to get rid of him. With bravery that she never knew she possessed, she slowed down on purpose. Just as she had hoped, Snape saw her slowness and sped up. He ran at remarkable speed. Just as he was about to run into her, she jumped to the side and stuck out her foot. It happened so fast he didn't even know what hit him.

He tripped over her foot and his face slammed into the marble stairs with a sickening _smack_. He was out cold. She poked him with her foot to make sure, and then ran back down the stairs just as fast as before. Her adrenaline was still rushing when she arrived at the door to Albus Dumbledore's office maybe ten minutes later. Very shortly after Hermione banged her fist on the door, Dumbledore answered it in his nightgown. He was also sporting a night cap, and thick, vividly colorful, wool socks.

Hermione immediately began shouting to Dumbledore what happened. She was so out of breath, it was nearly impossible to understand what she was saying. Dumbledore held up a hand and she stopped mid-sentence. "Have a seat, Miss Granger. Take deep breaths, drink some tea," he motioned with his wand and tea for two appeared on his desk as he made his way to sit down across from Hermione "and then tell me what this is all about." She immediately plopped into the chair in front of Dumbledore's desk, grabbed a tea cup, downed the whole thing, took a deep breath, and began explaining again; this time in an understandable manner.

She told him about everything that happened (leaving out the part about her talking to the house-elves about her secret crush). When he asked her why she was out and about at this time of night she blushed crimson. Before she could make up an excuse, Argus Filch came bursting into the office holding the dead cat, Mrs. Norris. His face was tear-stained and looked as if he was about to die right along with Mrs. Norris.

He opened his mouth, about to screech out words of outrage and death threats to the "blood-sucking, cat-killing, son of a banshee" that did this when Dumbledore said in a scarily fierce voice, "Mr. Filch before you say anything, by God put that cat _down_." Filch's eyes widened in fear, he dropped the cat suddenly to the floor at his feet, and raised his arms up as if the police were surrounding him.

Dumbledore pointed his wand at Mrs. Norris who, in turn, floated into the air, landed on the floor on the opposite side of the room, and was encircled in what most resembled ashes. Filch did not question this, but instead rounded on Dumbledore once more. And, once again, was stopped before he could say anything. Dumbledore said to him, "I know exactly what's going on, I know exactly what I am going to do, so there is no need to say anything."

He looked at Hermione and then back at Filch. Then they heard a strange growling noise. Dumbledore got up from his desk to stand by Filch. Hermione had a sudden thought that Snape had come back to get her and he was waiting by the door, growling. But the noise was coming from Mrs. Norris. All three looked over there and saw plain as day that Mrs. Norris was alive. Filch made a strange squeaking noise in his throat and shouted, "My Precious!" He tried to run to her, but Dumbledore restrained him.

It was a good thing too because as soon as she opened her now glowing, red eyes, she bared her teeth and sprang towards Filch who was the closest thing to her. She didn't get very far though. The circle of "ashes" surrounding her served as some sort of invisible force field and she ran smack into it. She hissed and ran around the circle, clawed at the air and made all sorts of horrible noises that Hermione never thought a cat could make.

Filch looked to Dumbledore for an answer. "Mrs. Norris has become a vampire because she was bitten by one." Filch looked worse than he did after he found her dead on the third floor. "It is a very good thing that you brought Mrs. Norris straight to me, Argus, or we may have had a vampire cat on the loose." He looked into Filch's eyes and said, "Yes, we will have to terminate her." "NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Filch screamed in agony. He cried pitifully like a little girl. "She's all I have!" He dropped to his knees and sobbed at Dumbledore's feet.

Dumbledore grasped his shoulder and said, "I'm sorry but we will have to deal with this later. There are more important things to deal with at the moment." Filch realized what he meant and jumped to his feet. "Where is he! Where is the heartless murderer that did this! I'LL KILL 'EM!" Dumbledore said to Filch in a scarily calm voice, "If you don't listen to me and go back to your office, you are going to force me to do something I will surely regret." Filch took a few deep, wheezy breaths before turning on his heel and marching out the door in defeat.

As soon as the door snapped shut, Dumbledore turned to one of the "sleeping" headmistresses on the wall and said, "Follow him please, and make sure he goes where he's supposed to." She nodded and disappeared beyond the frame. Dumbledore nodded for Hermione to follow him. They left his office and quickly paced towards the seventh floor. On the way Hermione asked what she had been dreading. "Professor Dumbledore, is Professor Snape really a…..well….a vampire?" Dumbledore glanced at her then kept his eyes focused straight ahead, "Yes, I'm afraid so." Hermione fell silent.

Dumbledore continued, "I cannot express to you how much I need you to keep quiet about this. If need be, I could put a memory charm on you if you think it best." Hermione stuttered, "N-No. I can handle it, you can trust me." She looked over at him and met his eyes with all sincerity.

When they reached the seventh floor landing, Snape was nowhere to be found. "Hopefully he has returned to the dungeons. I'll look further into it. Miss Granger I suggest you go to bed and get some rest. I'm sorry you had to go through with this." Hermione gave him one last reassuring look, and then turned to retire to the girl's dormitories. Dumbledore said one last thing, "I'll leave you with this Miss Granger; use your knowledge wisely." And he turned and left.

As Hermione lay in bed, she wondered how she could keep such a secret. Professor Snape, the Potions Master, a teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was a vampire.


End file.
